3.00pm
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has discussed a possible covert attack on a suspected chemical weapons operation believed to be run by members of al Qaeda in northern Iraq, US television networks have reported.
ABC News and CNN said the chemical weapons program was being run under the protection of the radical Kurdish group Ansar al Islam in a part of Iraq which President Saddam Hussein does not control.
"The CIA and the Pentagon began planning a covert operation into northern Iraq to destroy what appeared to be a budding chemical weapons laboratory several years ago, but late last week, the president called it off," ABC said.
CNN reported no final decision had been made on whether to act against the chemical weapons operation.
The White House declined comment on the reports.
"As a matter of White House policy, we don't discuss whether something was or was not briefed to the president," said White House National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton. "We don't confirm whether something was, is, or might be a military target."
The ABC report said the United States had been monitoring a small group of al Qaeda operatives for weeks as they experimented with poison gas and deadly toxins, killing barnyard animals and at least one human.
However, officials concluded the operation was so small and crude that in the final analysis it was not worth risking American lives to go after it and not worth the outcry that might follow any US operation inside Iraq, ABC said.
The network quoted US officials as saying there was no evidence Saddam's government had any knowledge of the al Qaeda activities.
The United States blames Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the Sept. 11 airplane attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people.
Separately, CNN has broadcast videotapes obtained in Afghanistan which appear to show suspected al Qaeda members testing chemical weapons on dogs.
The White House today said US officials would examine the tapes to see if they contain useful intelligence information.
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